Bienvenido a Miami!!

Hello from Miami! I am sitting in a hotel room with a bunch of volunteers sharing computers to write home and watching our last American reality shows for a while over a few beers.
The day has been so intense but really great and easy in terms of getting here and meeting everybody. It was so hard to walk away from my family and six-pack in the airport, but also so supportive and beautiful and I couldn't have felt any happier to have them as my loves.
Sarah Robinson, the volunteer I met earlier in DC, and I boarded easily with a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV from now on) who was leading our staging. I slept the whole flight, and then the RPCV paid for our shared taxi to the hotel, so we didn't even have to wait for the shuttle YAY!! We walked around outdoors a bit and grabbed a sandwich for lunch and then met up with our group of 31 to "stage" all afternoon. We are all pretty exhausted, no one had eaten or slept too much this past week, so we struggled to stay with our trainers as they walked us through some nuts and bolts of the Peace Corps, especially the next few days. The deal is we head to Bolivia tomorrow night and stay in a hotel until Saturday when we move in with our families. Everyone is so nice and fun--from all over the U.S. and all going to Bolivia to work in either water sanitation or health extension. Two married couples, one are young ones and the other is in their sixties so I'm sure they'll have a lot to offer.
Anyway, I should go play and then get some sleep as we have more orientation all day tomorrow starting at 8am. Thank you all so much for the wonderful week--although it didn't make it easy to walk away from all your loving faces. I should be in touch soon from Bolivia, so know all is well and we're working hard and hugging each other and discussing all our emotions more than you would ever think is possible with 1-day-old friends:)
Take care, and we'll talk soon! Love love love

Signing Off...

Thank you to all family and friends that have made my last week in the States for awhile so happy and busy and fun! I'm going to miss you all more than you know and of course be in touch all the time! Thanks so much for all your kind notes, gifts, emails, advice, hugs...
I put up the pics from this week on ofoto--so be sure to check them out! Otherwise, take care, keep in touch porfa porfa, and come visit!
Soooo excited omigosh love love love love

DC Day with Kelsey and Jim

Siscuz Kelse and Jaime Joven, our PSU friend from the DR trips, came down to visit April 28th to play in D.C. We saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetary, had lunch in Clarendon, walked around the Mall, World War II Memorial, Lincoln, Vietnam, Korea, FDR, and the White House, and ended the night with a delicious (early) birthday dinner for Kelse with her fam at the Macaroni Grill. Highlights include:
-Getting our parking ticket validated for being honest about not deserving to have it validated in the first place
-Rocket (patriotic) pops on the Mall
-Kelsey's million crushes on all the military boys
-The air show we got during the changing of the guard
-The Italian aria Kelsey received with her bday cake at the restaurant
-Keeping Jim awake to attend the interesting night festivities in Arlington...

T-11 Days

Scrumptious pizza dinner with Faraj (who is my favorite.) We created this blog, because MySpace is creepy, and my family can't check in on Facebook.

-Leaving for Bolivia on Monday, May 8th. BIG PARTY MAY 6TH.